An ever increasing number of people suffer from cancer. Surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy can treat some tumors. An alternative treatment of cancer therapy is Boron Neutron Captured Therapy (BNCT). During BNCT, a patient is injected with a boron compound highly enriched in B10. The boronated compound concentrates preferentially in the cancer. The patient's tumor is then irradiated with thermal neutron beams which can be capture by boron in the tumor according to a B10 (n,α)Li7 reaction. The distance of high linear energy transfer (LET) α particles in tissue is about the diameter of a cell. Therefore, a highly localized, specific reaction takes place whereby the tumor receives a larger radiation dose, compared to that received by the surrounding healthy tissue, from the transit of the thermal neutrons.
The rapid attenuation of the thermal neutron flux and random scattering are the major problems of BNCT. These prevent effective treatment of the deep tumors. A large proportion of neutrons seldom reaches the tumor, but damages the normal cells instead.